The present invention relates to a portable light, and more particularly to a portable light adapted for night fishing from a boat or from land.
Night fishing is a popular sport in many areas of the country. Much of this fishing is done from small boats or in remote areas away from conventional sources of electricity. Providing a safe source of adequate light in a hand-portable device requiring little maintenance, however, has been a problem. Traditional alcohol or kerosene fueled lanterns often do not provide enough light to adequately illuminate the entire fishing area or require refueling. Refueling in a boat can be especially hazardous due to the danger of fire. Further, many lanterns require periodic cleaning and wick replacement.
Portable lighting devices that do provide adequate light are often large and difficult to transport. Other known portable lights sometimes spill excessive amounts of light onto the water, thereby scaring off certain types of fish from the viciinity of the fisherman.
Another problem, albeit one common with many lights, is that they attract insects. Most portable lights provide sources of light close to the people receiving the benefit of the light, thus attracting insects to the people. For example, anchor lights, required for small boats in many states, are only one or two feet above the boat. Not only do they attract insects close to the poeple in the boat, they tend to shine in the eyes of the boaters.
Portable lighting devices are well known. The night fishing device disclosed in the Reeder U.S. Pat. No. 3,064,122, dated Nov. 13, 1962, directs one source of light into the water to attract fish, but provides only a small amount of light to illuminate the interior of the boat. It is adapted to be used only on boats.
Jensen U.S. Pat. No. 3,197,631, dated July 27, 1965, discloses a portable outlet extension and work lamp for use on a construction site. It is not readily adaptable for use on a small boat and requires an electrical power source suitable for use with power tools.
The overhead bike light in the Ledterman U.S. Pat. No. 4,049,959, dated Sept. 20, 1977, provides a small amount of overhead lighting but does not include alternate attachment schemes for use in a boat or ashore where there are no mounting brackets available.
The lighting devices disclosed in the Gossawiller U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,209, dated Dec. 11, 1984, and in the Dimiceli U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,084, dated Dec. 7, 1982, include flood lamps mounted on heavy devices carried on trucks or cars for use at the site of an emergency such as a forest fire or automobile accident. Neither device, however, is particularly suited for use on a small boat and neither is hand-portable.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a novel lighting apparatus which is both portable and may be mounted on a variety of surfaces.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel lighting system which may be collapsed to provide ease of portability.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a portable lighting system in which the sources of illumination are sufficiently removed from the user of the light to avoid attracting insects to the person of the user.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel lighting system which is not dependent on outside sources of power.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel lighting system in which the illumination is provided within a narrowly defined field.
These and many other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims and the following detailed description of preferred embodiments read in conjunction with the appended drawings.